The More you Know

[Advint]

A normal conversation occurs at about 60 decibels (The unit used to measure sound) Which cannot damage hearing. However something such as a bulldozer idling can reach 80 db and can cause hearing damage after only an hour. Ear buds can reach up to 100 db and can damage hearing after only 15 minutes. Would I start worrying about all this hearing damage, no, as it is fairly common to receive hearing damage throughout ones life. To what extent is the question, and you should always be mindful to wear hearing protection because even 20 db can make the difference later on in life.

[AKM]

Average cruising altitude of airliner is generally considered to be 35,000 feet, sometimes as high as 41 or 42,000, depending on fuel state.  (They get lighter and go higher as they burn fuel during a trip, as their jet engines gain efficiency the higher they go - to a point.)

 

I wouldn't want to spend any amount of time at 35,000 feet around a star, thankyouverymuch, regardless of weather that's measured from the center or the surface!

[nonusnomeni]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21eFwbb48sE#t=257

[AKM]

All this searching for that missing airliner, I thought I'd let people know that it's happened before.  Why didn't you hear about it?  It was in Africa, and the only person missing in the incident was the pilot and mechanic.

 

There is one other largely unknown example of an airliner disappearing.  This one was a good condition ex American Airlines jet that was chartered to central Africa.  The pilot and mechanic was then "persuaded" to stay on for quite some time (months), rather than immediately return as was the plan, flying the plane for the new operators.  Of course, it was allowed to deteriorate ridiculously.  Then, after sitting on a ramp collecting dust (and weeds), someone, they aren't sure who, came along and started getting it back to flyable (note I did not say "legally airworthy") condition.  One day, it fired up its engines, taxied to the end of the runway, took off without clearance, and disappeared to the west over the South Atlantic.  A search of the pilot's movements turned him up missing, with little if any evidence that he was at all involved in the disappearance of the aircraft.  The original charter owner (in the southern US as I recall) claimed (and I believe got) the insurance for the aircraft, and that was that.  It hasn't been seen since.  The restructuring of the aircraft as a "tanker" with massive internal fuel bladders that were, as I recall fed into the fuel system, mean that the thing had a ridiculous range, at least in theory.  That meant that despite being a short range 727 in theory, in practice, it could fly the Atlantic in one go, something that troubled the US, thinking it could be used in another attack.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N844AA

 

Other examples at the bottom of the Wiki.

[nonusnomeni]

[ТigегШооd]

There is a way to fire between 6 & 10 shots from a railgun without any damage to the surface of the rails.

[Myst42]

Brief History of Vampires:

 

The vampire figure has gone through several transformations along the ages. Contrary to popular belief, Dracula is not the first vampiric figure.

Some people refer to Lilith as the first one appearing on biblical references, and she might as well be one of the first ones, but not the only one.

 

The first vampiric figures were the gods. Every ancient culture has them, and a lot of them required blood as sacrifice. From Africa to Pre-Columbian America it is possible to find thousands of different stories about gods coming down from the stars, creating mankind and requiring blood as sustenance. Blood was a cult as important as the sun was in early ages.

 

Approximately during the middle ages and around the XIV century, the myth became more complicated as it merged two concepts. First there was the extreme cruelty that some rulers inflicted upon their vassals and slaves, and second, there was the lack of medical understanding of processes related to death and illness. The vampire figure in this era was a corpse who went out during the night to feed and infect the living. During the Black Plague, thanks to the highly elevated mortality rates, there was no room for more corpses in graveyards, so they were left out in the open where they swelled and started making noises product of biological gasses, their mouths filled with blood and their hair and nails kept growing, all of which are natural manifestations of the process of decomposition. But all of this in a frame of religious zealotry and fear of evil forces contributed to a vampire figure more similar to a zombie, revenant or "nosferatu", a spawn of hell.

 

The next stage occurs between the XVII and early XX centuries, and it is a merging of all the previous but more focused on the concept of the vampire being also a noble, which gave birth to icons like Dracula or Countess Bathory in literature. Nobles were supposed to descend from royal bloodlines and some even had the belief that their lineage could be traced to Jesus Christ. Cruelty and blood purity made a dangerous mix of concepts. Sexuality also began to enter the picture as it was considered the sin of temptation.

 

After that, humanity became the central point of the concept, transforming the vampire into a cursed and damned figure with Gothic aspects and depressive behavior thanks to Anne Rice's novels from which a lot of modern concepts emerge including "Interview with the Vampire" "Underworld" and "Vampire: The Masquerade"

 

Lastly the modern vampire dropped the Gothic aspects and became more of a humanized being with more or less lust for blood depending on the story. This finally gives birth to the concept of the teenage vampire involved in all kinds of adolescent drama

[AKM]

Regarding stars, remember that light travels at the speed of, well, light.  It takes roughly 8 minutes for light from our sun to reach the earth.  Due to the mindbogglingly vast distances of space, this means that some of the stars you see when you look at the night sky no longer exist.  Their light is still traveling here despite the fact that the star itself has long since burned out.  Were the Sun to suddenly cease to exist, we wouldn't know about it for about eight minutes.

 

Speed of light:

 

299,792,458 metres per second (exactly)

 

186,000 miles per second (approx.)

 

671 million miles per hour (approx.)

 

Distance between sun and earth: 92,935,700 miles = 149,565,511,180 meters / 299,792,458 m/s = 498.896 seconds / 60 = 8.31 minutes

 

 

[Pixie-K]

Turtles can breathe through their butts.

 

Can they also talk out their asses? If so, I may know a few turtles..

[Dyschromie]

The most unlucky day in a year is known as Friday, the 13th of october. Centuries ago, all french cities received orders from Pope to arrest all the Templars that day and to execute them.

 

(My sister is born a friday 13 of october by the way, it's only for superstitious people...)

[Advint]

Sugarcane is burned for a bit before harvesting. The fire burns of a waxy outer coating and any dead leaves. Some Sugarcane crops can yield 120 tons per acre. The US by the way consumes 9 metric tons of sugar annually. China only consumes 30% more than that.

[Advint]

Not so much a Fact as a truth: Dark Souls will steal your Soul little by little.

As for the fact: In WWII the U.S. Department of Defense, then known as the Department of War (until 1947) built a computer which fit in a small two story house. The purpose of this computer was to calculate target trajectories for artillery. The calculations were so accurate that the same values determined by that computer in WWII are still used in targeting trajectories today. Of course that computer was far inferior than even our desktop computers today.

[Advint]

I put this in another thread but it's a simple fact.

As a fetus everyone is female, until the Y chromosome kicks in and its decided that it will be a male. It's the same reason men have nipples. But lets be honest it would look weird if we men didn't.

Proof

[AKM]

Post # 38 and artillery.  There was developed after the war, guided artillery shells.  The shells had the ability to independently adjust their flight path after leaving the cannon in order to correct for small differences between calculations and reality, particularly with regards to winds aloft between the cannon and the target. They were thus more accurate.  It was discovered, however, that the accuracy increase was minimal given the expense involved.  Thus guided artillery rounds fell into disuse when it was discovered that it was far cheaper and more effective to just blanket the target with unguided rounds and adjust on the fly.  Another tactic often used (especially in Vietnam) was that of the marker round, whereby a single High Explosive (HE) or White Phosphorous (WP) round was fired on the original calculations, then needed adjustments made to the calculations, followed by a "fire for effect"; firing of all cannons as quickly as possible for a fire mission once the cannons were adjusted on target.

[Advint]

Another tactic often used (especially in Vietnam) was that of the marker round, whereby a single High Explosive (HE) or White Phosphorous (WP) round was fired on the original calculations, then needed adjustments made to the calculations, followed by a "fire for effect"; firing of all cannons as quickly as possible for a fire mission once the cannons were adjusted on target.

Yes and Battleships were quite the fire for effect because they had a one kilometer + or - range for the marker round. In order to zero in they would actually target something nearby first and then make necessary adjustments. Of course they fire the equivalent of a sedan, so it doesn't matter too much. 

 

That's all from a first hand recounting I heard so, I may have remembered some wrong.

 

[Redflyingmonkey]

Something I came accross yesterday night.

 

Contrary to popular rumors, it turns out that the Russian queen who reigned during the most part of the XVIIIth century, Catherine II also called "The Great" did not in fact die from being crushed by the horse she was fucking with. It is commonly believed that she had a sexual appetite so great she used to lay with horses and pigs, and one day after strapping herself to the underside of a stallion, the equipment broke and the horse pierced her from the inside before someone could calm it down.

Most of those rumors may have come from the Poland emigrees who tried to diminish and belittle her reign.

[AKM]

Yes and Battleships were quite the fire for effect because...

 

As evidenced in Tom Clancy's Red Storm Rising.

 

One of the common guidance methods for the self guiding shell system was radar.  Its disuse did not mean that expensive shells with radar in them weren't used, quite the contrary.

 

A standard artillery shell has an impact fuse.  This means that it won't go off until it hits something, usually the ground.  The problem with that is that even then it takes a fraction of a second for the fuse to set off the main charge, during which time the round is still traveling forward, burying itself in the ground.  The end result is that due to depth and continued forward motion, much of the explosive force is expended into the ground instead of over the ground where the enemy and his structures and weapons are.

 

The solution was called the Radio Proximity Fuse, or VT fuse.  These had a simple radar in the nose of each projectile that measured the distance to the ground.  When the distance got to a set point, the projectile detonated.  This allowed for airbursts which are horrendously effective.  When one famous general found out about them and their effectiveness, he had to be all but restrained to be convinced that using the small batch that was available right away to save a few men's lives now was not in the best interest of the war effort, besides, surprise would be lost, and the Germans would know about the new weapon.  Instead, it was better to wait until enough shells were available to make a difference and use them in bulk during a major operation.  Common sense won out, and a few men were sacrificed that might have lived so that many would live.

 

The Radio Proximity Fuse

 

http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq96-1.htm

[Advint]

The United States Social Security Administration keeps records of death for united states citizens with Social Security Numbers since 1936. This is known as the Social Security Death Index (SSDI), and can be used for genealogical research in the United States. Unlike the Death Master File the SSDI is available for free through many genealogy websites such as say, ancestry.com (not an advertisement, just an example). The Death Master File is merely the name given to the system which contains all the death records.

Why does any of this matter? Well to put it simple it allows the government and you to estimate a possible time of death for family members. This is all based on trends for people around your age group. So if you want to stick it to the government and make them pay hand over fist for you try to live beyond their estimate. That is of course if you live in the United States, and Social Security is still around when you reach a time when you can receive Social Security. Because who knows what the future holds.

[Advint]

Tunnel Boring Machines (TBM 'Moles') are large machines built to dig tunnels in a consistent and efficient manner. These large machines can vary in size depending on if they are equipped with the ability to also lay cement down as they progress forward. Using hydraulic pistons they exert a consistent amount of pressure on the surface they are 'boring' in order to get a clean and stable tunnel. The Tungsten Carbide wheels on the front of the machine are the actual cutting tools. Any material that is broken up by the machine is mixed with a foam like material and scooped up by teeth and openings in the face of the machine. Then it is carried away by a series of conveyors and screws. 

The TBM's used in the Chunnel on the British side were driven off course when the TBM's on the French side were 50 meters away, and then entombed in concrete.

The earliest TBM in the United States was used in 1953 to dig a train tunnel. However the steel of the day was not hard enough to survive the stresses of digging through a hard granite like material and the machine broke down after only 10 feet (3.33 meters). The earliest relation to the tunnel boring machine the 'tunnel shield' was built in 1825 for excavating the Thames Tunnel.

[Advint]

Ants have what is known as a Hive mind, where the entire collective of the colony produces one mind. Each member of the colony has only a few functions and may only ever perform one. When studying ants scientists have found that the way the entire colony comes to decisions is much like the way the ape mind does. Ants are also much like humans in the way they decide where to live, weighing pro's and cons, and even dismissing locations all together. Once a location is found and scouted another ant will come along, and if it comes to the same conclusion of the location being suitable it is likely to be their new home. However should they find that no food source is nearby or that there is a dead 'previous tenant' they will dismiss the location all together.

Ants also communicate through the use of pheromones. Scouts will leave trails which workers will follow. The trails can be marked as good when food has been found, and bad if there is danger found. Though this can result in some odd phenomenons if something goes awry, such as a sick ant leaving a circular trail and then dying without marking it as bad. This can produce a constant flow of ants moving in a large never ending path. Sometimes these paths can be miles long. A good example of this can be found on youtube here:

 

[BAB PEEG]

Unit 731 (731部隊 Nana-san-ichi butai^?, Chinese: 731部队) was a covert biological and chemical warfare research and development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army that undertook lethal human experimentation during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) and World War II. It was responsible for some of the most notorious war crimes carried out by Japanese personnel. Unit 731 was based at the Pingfang district of Harbin, the largest city in the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo (now Northeast China).

 

Copied from here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731

[Advint]

Unit 731

The general in charge of that unit became a US citizen and worked on weapons for the United States using some of the original blueprints from his time working in that unit. It was one of a few situations where it was deemed that the person behind the war crimes was more valuable alive than in prison or otherwise. The Russians did similar things during the cold war as well, so it wasn't just the US.

 

Also the region that they were located in is also referred to as Manchuria.

 

Edit: To continue on Manchuria knowledge; it was where the last emperor of China reigned during his final years. After having been ousted in mainland China, he was offered reign of Manchuria by the Japanese. This was of course offered as being a sort of friendly gesture for a standalone state, but became nothing more than a puppet figure head. It was really just a way of attempting to legitimize the state which Japan controlled. Emperor Puyi (Aisin-Gioro Puyi) reigned during the end of the Qing Dynasty December 2, 1908 to February 12, 1912, and as Emperor of Manchukuo (Manchuria) March 1, 1934 to August 15, 1945. He lived until October 17, 1967.

 

Edit Edit: There was also a plan by the Nixon administration to drop nuclear bombs along the China, North Korea border (Manchuria region) to attempt to create a bit of havoc and bring an end to the Vietnam War. The plan was obviously insane to think of today but was meant to create distrust between China and Vietnam, ending the support China was providing the North Vietnamese. It was a good thing we tried to impeach Nixon.

[myuhinny]

Why not just get a bunch of dogs and let them lick most of that stuff as a dogs mouth is suppose to be the cleanest mouth out there?

[Advint]

Why not just get a bunch of dogs and let them lick most of that stuff as a dogs mouth is suppose to be the cleanest mouth out there?

I read this yesterday, and assumed that you were kidding. However, I am still going to answer it seriously. While dogs do have some of the cleanest mouths around, their tongues do not have antimicrobial properties, and would in fact leave bacteria behind which could possibly infect people if ingested.

 

And now for a fact, in honor of Wolfenstein The New Order coming out:

The sturmgewehr 44 the first assault rifle ever produced was put into production late in the war (WWII). The development stage of this iconic rifle was actually kept secret from Hitler, as he felt that the standard rifle that the German army had been using (Kar98k) up to that point was more than sufficient for any soldier. When the new rifle was accidentally mentioned around Hitler, he went to see it for himself, and eventually approved. Hitler actually named the rifle type himself, calling it the sturmgawehr (assault rifle). And thus the modern assault rifle was born, but it had a short lifespan. The sturmgawehr 44 was only in production from 1942 - 1945, and they produced 425,977.

 

Now your saying, "that's actually a lot of assault rifles!" 

 

Well you would be wrong, seeing how the Kar98k (which is really just a Mouser with a different name) had been produced by more than 10x that. At about 14,643,260. Meaning that the sturmgawehr barely puts a dent in the small arms production of Nazi Germany. Oh and more by the way facts on small arms, the M16 has been produced more than 8,000,000 times.

 

The sturmgawehr 44's abreviation is that of the Stg 55, and is sometimes called the MP 44. Although the latter is incorrect as MP means Machine Pistol, and the Stg 44 fires a 7.92 x 33mm Kurz round; which is not a pistol round.

 

Now why did I pick to tell you about the sturmgawehr, well simply put the assault rifle in the new Wolfenstein game looks like an upgraded version of that.

[( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)]

I recenty learned something about sizes.

 

Imagine a sliding scale for size: one end being the smallest at the size an atom; the other side being the largest and capping out at the size of our planet. Roughly somewhere in the middle would be a speck of dust.